


She's all alone

by Sylenis



Series: I guess there are now multiple babu fics? [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Fantastical Racism, Loss of Child, Miscarriage, Orphans, mentions of an off screen death, ok we've mentions of, or that keith wouldn't worry about his galra kids, set waaaay in the future, you can't tell me people won't hate the galra still
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 18:31:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18197810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylenis/pseuds/Sylenis
Summary: "She's all alone right now." Pidge said quietly. "Are they really going to take her away?"Keith swallowed, "That's... how it normally goes."Tentative drabble based on some ideas I've had for a while, and mentioned in the Kidge Server.Please check the tags and beginning notes <3





	She's all alone

**Author's Note:**

> I've been entertaining the idea for a while, of Keith and Pidge taking in alien babs. I wasn't sure about actually posting here, but I figured the layout means I can tag properly to just be sure. 
> 
> Lyra is an absolute Daddy's Girl™ and when they go out to do peace missions in space likes to go play with the other Paladins' and crew members' children.
> 
> This will talk a lot about orphans, the war, how the rest of the universe views the galra, and Keith and Pidge's past complications when attempting to have kids.

"Keith?" 

  
Keith looked down at Pidge, curled under the blankets, one arm sandwiched between her pillow and her head. Between them Lyra was clamped to his arm, a ball of warmth against his skin, buzzing slightly as she purred in her sleep.

Pidge was watching her as she snuffled, little breaths puffing against the shirt he wore for bed. It wasn't unusual for her to clamber into bed with them on most nights, especially after missions, but sometimes just for fun. Keith wasn't about to complain.

She was right where she belonged, tucked against his chest.   
"What's going to happen... To that kit?"  
  
Keith bit his lip, the arm around his daughter tightened reflexively. He'd seen it so many times. Planets where the galra had run rampant there were always casualties. There were always waifs and strays, children torn from their families. Parents lamenting and sobbing in the makeshift medical units.   
  
Sometimes, depending on how far and for how long the galra had integrated themselves, there were children who weren't  _wanted_.

'Half-breeds', 'mutts', 'mongrels'. He'd heard all the slurs, seen the young souls destined to wander the cities and raise themselves. That stung even more to see. 

Pidge's eyebrows were knotting together and he wondered if she too was remembering the way the infant had wailed in the infirmary, shrieked when medics drew blood for a test.   
How she'd clung to Keith's armor the whole desperate, mud splattered, rain logged run back to the Atlas.   
The first glimpse of pointed ears and bleary yellow eyes within the threadbare blanket, under cover of a half crumbled wall and the hoarse pleas of a Galran woman choking on her injuries. 

"The Blade operatives retrieved her mother." He answered finally. "I didn't find any ID on her when I was- when I tried..." He trailed off and tucked a flyaway hair out of Lyra's sleeping face. "They might find something. They can scan them both, see if there's any way they can locate some relatives. The kit's father might be around, or someone else who can take her."  
  
"And if they can't? Find anyone?" Her voice was low, as though hoping he might not have heard her and he took a deep breath.   
"Then, she'll end up in the system. In a place where she can be taken care of. The Blades will probably want to take her preemptively until they know where she's going."   
  
Keith had never told her much of his time growing up in the system, never loved at best, and other times, much much worse. Passed around from family to family, Home to Home until he'd finally found a lifeline, a sliver of light to climb for in the form of Shiro, the Garrison, the promise of a future, somewhere he might actually belong up among the stars he dreamed of every night.   
  
He'd told her enough though, that he felt her tense next to him and cuddle closer. He wished he could promise her that the small child would be OK. That like on Earth, the fact that she was barely a few movements old would work in her favor, that someone would want her, could love her. 

This wasn't Earth. There were too many casualties of war out here. Too many children hoping for a second chance. And her heritage? The purple skin, yellow eyes and short, tufted tail? They'd only work against her.  
  
Fear and mistrust of the galra permeated the skins of communities that had been held under the thumb of the empire, drained dry by soldiers and terrorized by warlords.

Keith could brush it off. He could ignore the stares that came with the territory. Keith could -mostly- pass for human. Most people knew the last Paladin of the Black Lion was part galra, and clad in his Blade uniform, shaggy messy braid hanging down his back and sharp purple eyes he was hard to miss.  
  
His daughter, while clearly of mixed descent currently faced no discrimination, especially when seen on her mother's hip. So far, in her three short years, the only tells she possessed were the shape of her ears- inherited from her grandmother, and a set of unusually sharp teeth. Her eyes, though vaguely feline, were like her mother's and she took after Keith in hair colour and skin tone. She didn't look out of place toddling around with the other alien children on the Atlas.  
  
This child wouldn't escape it. Would be lucky to find somewhere to call home.  
  
"She's all alone right now." Pidge said quietly. "Are they really going to take her away?"

Keith swallowed, "That's... how it normally goes."   
  
He could almost hear her mind working, could see it in the way she chewed on her lip, her free hand petting along the braid Lyra wore to sleep.  
  
It would be easy to suggest. Just a few words, a quiet proposal in the low light of their shared cabin.

He'd seen how his mate had seemed almost reluctant to relinquish the wriggling, fussing creature earlier that day. He'd seen her pensive face as they went in empty handed for their decontamination.   
Felt the pang in his own gut leaving a wide eyed infant behind in the medical bay. Seen the way Allura had looked at them both with a strange smile.

  
They'd discussed adoption before. Long before kids had been on the table for either of them. Again a few months after their second loss, and ironically not long before Pidge had found out about Lyra- despite having sworn against them trying again.   
  
Sure there were other reasons against suggesting they help keep an eye on this little one; it would be hard not to grow attached, they had jobs to do, missions to oversee and partake in, but the biggest one had been her possible negative reaction to taking in another child, even if it proved to only be temporary. Especially if it proved to only be temporary.  
  
He'd seen Pidge, his Katie hurting far too much these last few years. 

  
  
"Here's an idea..." She pulled his thoughts back to the present. She wasn't looking at him, even as he fixed his eyes on the mop of auburn hair splayed out over the pillow, the jut of her lips as her arm and gravity squished her cheek slightly.

" _We_  could take care of her- until they know where she's going. Weknow how to deal with a Galra baby. We've dealt with one. I just... She's alone, Keith. If something happened to us, and Lyra was left alone?"

"Pidge, nothing's going to happen to us." Keith reached out for her, curling a hand around her back and pulling her in closer, so that she was pressed to Lyra's back and he could hold her better. "And if something did happen, you think she'd be alone? You think your parents would let that happen? Matt? Shiro? Allura? My mom?"  
  
"Is that a no?" Pidge tipped her head back to meet his gaze and the expression in her amber eyes hit him in the chest. 

"What? No, no!" Lyra's breath hitched, a small whine sounding somewhere near his chest and he lowered his voice back down. "You want to do that? Look after her?"  
  
"She gave her to us." Pidge said quietly, still looking up at him from the pillows. "She asked us to take care of her. I want to do that for her."  
  
Keith felt a rush of affection for his mate swell up in his chest, and took her free hand with his, squeezing it and bringing her knuckles to his lips.   
"OK."  
"OK?" She breathed. "So we can?" 

"I think our only real obstacle is this little monster." Keith stroked Lyra's head fondly. "But she-"   
"Gets on fine with the other kids." Pidge finished his thought. "She's way more sociable than we ever were. So if we can obtain Lyra Approval status..."   
  
"Pass me my data pad?" She crooked an eyebrow up at him and he smiled. "They're not supposed to do anything 'til the test results come in at the morning cycle but I'll send a message not to move her, just in case." 

Pidge took her hand back as his grip slackened, but didn't move for the pad on the stand next to her side of the bed.  
"You're OK with it? With keeping her here?"  
  
Keith looked down at the little girl sleeping between them, content and nuzzling at his arm, and he smoothed her hair down.  
"If I could, I'd take in every kid I met without a family. Every kid deserves a home, to be loved."

  
  
"My husband, the big softie." Pidge was smirking as she rolled onto her back, stretching out to grab Keith's pad.  
"My beautiful wife taking in waifs and strays, with a maternal instinct she's always claimed not to have." He shot back, balancing the pad with his free arm, and twisting the one underneath his daughter to type one handed. "We should try actually getting married sometime." He added, to her quiet laugh.   
  
Message sent, he passed the device back so that Pidge could return it to the stand before coming back in to bury herself against him in the blankets.   
"Just until she has a place to go?"  She murmured, slipping a hand over and past Lyra and coming to rest it on Keith's waist.   
"Sure. We'll see how it goes." He answered, his own arm draped reassuring over the other two.  
  
They'd see in the morning.

**Author's Note:**

> *
> 
> ofc "until she finds a home" becomes "she HAS a home, right here" and Pidge hissing at anyone suggesting otherwise.  
> Keith: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ can't argue with the missus~ guess she's staying~ oh well~ what a shame~ ~ ~
> 
> This is just a drabble OTL but it'd be nice to write it properly some time.


End file.
